DC AT THE NATS

> STREET MACHINE SUMMERNATS 31 WAS INVADED BY A HOST OF DRAG CHALLENGE SURVIVORS, WHO CAME AWAY WITH A MIX OF TROPHIES AND HEAT EXPOSURE

WELCOME to the first instalment of our new Street Machine Drag Challenge column. We’ll keep you up to date with news on upcoming events and we’ll have gossip on the coolest cars being readied for battle. First up, let’s have a look at the members of the Drag Challenge family who attended Street Machine Summernats 31, starting with our own Lpgpowered weapon.

CAB RANKS HIGHLY

DEPUTY editor Scott Taylor spent most of his Christmas holidays fixing our crashed Turbo Taxi (above). After finding most of the panels at the wreckers, he replaced everything else forward of the engine, with the 2010 FG Falcon receiving thermo fans, radiator, condenser, radiator support and bumper support. He also ditched the steelies for a set of 17-inch XR6 alloys, for better grip on the road. The Taxi was a big hit at Summernats, with people jokingly trying to hail it all weekend. Humidity put a damper on its power figures, with the turbocharged LPG engine only managing to spit out 382rwhp on the MPW Dyno, 60hp off its best. But that didn’t stop Scotty from having fun in the Go-to-whoa and grass driving events.

CLIVE GOES NATURAL

CLIVE Polidano had a ball at DC 2017 in his 6/71-blown 383ci small block-powered HZ Holden (top right). The 3600lb beast clocked a new PB of 11.50s at DC, but after seven hard years, the SBC was getting a little noisy, so Clive pulled it out for a freshen-up and hit the ’Nats with a basic tunnel-rammed motor. “We’ve got a bit more horsepower out of the blown motor now, so I’m hoping to that we can get into the 10s,” says Clive. We look forward to seeing it at DC again this year!

ALYSHA RUNS HOT

ALYSHA Teale drives the wheels off her murderedout HQ Prem (middle right). She’s owned the car eight years and this was its sixth Summernats, but it’s had a makeover in the past year. The 383ci Chev-powered sedan won a trophy on Tuff Street, spun the dyno to 364rwhp, and had a good crack at the Go-to-whoa driving, too. “Apparently I made the Go-to-whoa final,” she says. “But I was ill on Sunday – I think I had heat stroke!”

PITYING THE PANO

AFTER riding shotgun with his dad Greg at the first three Drag Challenge events, Lewis Mason did DC 2017 in his HQ Belmont panel van (bottom right). The purple shaggin’ wagon did DC on its head, running a couple of 12.2s; however, Lewis is planning on moving the van on to do other – possibly forced induction – things. “The van is too nice to continue to abuse in this way,” he says.

THE TURBO TAXI WAS A BIG HIT AT SUMMERNATS, WITH PEOPLE JOKINGLY TRYING TO HAIL IT ALL WEEKEND

BEAUT NEW UTE

SYDNEY racer John Kerr has competed in every Drag Challenge in his 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente. Powered by a 354ci naturally aspirated Windsor, the Comet is a tough thing, with a best ET of 10.77sec. It has also won its fair share of tinware in Dialyour-own competition, including a second and a third place at Drag Challenge 2015 and 2016, respectively. John debuted his new ride at Summernats 31, namely a twinturbo Windsor-powered Mercury ute (top right)! As usual, John handled most of the build himself, including doing the spray work in his backyard!

CHERRY RIPE

BRENDAN Cherry is another guy that has entered in every DC, but last year he traded his tough HQ Monaro for this stunning HK

(SM, Sep ’17). After converting the bigblock HK (middle right) to twin-turbo spec, Brendan nabbed second place at King of the Street 2017 in Ballarat, and, despite recovering from surgery, gave DC a fair shake. The Monaro then got a serious tidy up ready for Summernats 31, which paid off with a spot in the Elite Top 60!

FOUR-BANGER BASHER

SCOTT Forrester’s giant-slaying ARROW Gemini (bottom right) is no stranger to the Summernats dyno cell, having won the Forced Induction four-pot class multiple times before. This year it was back despite suffering damage to its turbocharged Isuzu motor’s internals at Mildura during Drag Challenge 2017. “I’m not sure if it threw the timing tensioner, which took out a couple of valves, or it dropped a couple of valves, which took out the tensioner,” says Scott. The ACT local bashed everything back together for Summernats and belted out a monstrous 839rwhp to claim another Horsepower Heroes class win and put a final nail in the poor donk’s coffin. “We wound some more boost into it and I have a feeling it has finally done the ring-lands on the pistons,” Scott said after his winning run. “I’ll rebuild it to how it was here because I have a tube-frame car that I want to take further. This is really the ultimate incarnation of this car and to take it any further to make more power would hurt its driveability, which I don’t want to do.”

ROCKING THE ROLLERS

DARYL Elliott and his wheelstanding Torana (below) competed in the first three Drag Challenge events, but the car was absent last year (although Daryl still came along as pit crew). The tough LH was at Summernats 31, where it claimed victory in the Naturally Aspirated Eight-cylinder class in Horsepower Heroes. Its 434ci smallblock Chev topped out at 551rwhp, and sounded fantastic doing it. “We ran Roo16 fuel as protection against detonation,” Daryl says. “We had the timing wound up to 35 degrees and took it out to 8200rpm with the limiter set at 8400rpm.” Daryl has another cool project in the build, but we’re sworn to secrecy.